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MEMORIAL 

OF 

Jesse Lee and the Old Elm. 

EIGHTY-FIFTH AJIJIIVE<RSA(RY 

OF 

JESSE LEE'S SERMON 

UNDER THE OLD ELM, BOSTON COMMON, 

HELD 

Sunday Evening, July ii, 1875. 

WITH A 



■*♦♦- 



BOSTON : 

JAMES P. MAGEE, 38 BROMFIELD STREET. 

(New England Depository.) 

1875- 



<J> 






.V* 




Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1875, by 

J. W. HAMILTON, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



John Bent § Co., Printers, 36 Bromfield St., Boston. 



L 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURES, 



While we have been unfortunate in the efforts we have made to 
secure a copy of the picture of Jesse Lee, — the only one of which 
any positive information could be obtained being a profile, which 
disappeared from the family in Virginia fifty years ago, — we could 
not have been more fortunate than we have been in finding appro- 
priate plates of other pictures to accompany the Memorial. 

THE HELIOTYPE. 

The old engraving of the Common which has been so accurately 
reproduced from a copper-plate now in the possession of the Boston 
Public Library, and which has not been republished in any form of 
which we have knowledge, represents the prospect as it was seen in 
the summer that Lee first preached in Boston. The picture was 
taken less than two months after his first sermon was preached, and 
possibly sketched the very same July. The rising ground from 
which the view is given is a short distance west of where the State 
House now stands, and was then but a few rods from the old Han- 
cock estate, one of the outer buildings of which, very probably, is 
partially seen in the left of the picture. The hill commands a beau- 
tiful view across the Common and the southeastern part of Boston, 
to "the memorable heights of Dorchester, whose formidable ap- 
pearance in 1776 discomposed the military nerves of Britain, and 
eventually necessitated a retreat from the capital of Massachusetts." 

The Old Elm stands alone in the field now so providently a great 



4 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

forest in the heart of the city, but which was described in a maga- 
zine published the year before the print of the picture as " a large, 
level green, called * the Common,' containing nearly forty-five' acres, 
where upwards of one hundred cows daily feed. It is handsomely 
railed in," continues the same paper, " except on the west, where it 
is washed by the Charles River. The wall bordering the Common 
on the east is ornamented with a treble range of trees, many of 
which afford a delightful shade. Hither the ladies and gentlemen 
resort in summer, and inhale those refreshing breezes which are 
wafted over the water. Upon days of election and public festivity, 
the ground apparently teems with multitudes of every description 
and rank, who occupy themselves in various amusements." 

It is difficult for one of the present generation, though of the 
most credulous mind, to have faith in the truths of the picture, ex- 
cepting possibly the traditional cow. So great have been the 
changes, that what is pictured here as rugged rock and barren hills 
is all a city now ; while the Public Garden and the brick, stone, and 
marble blocks of the Back Bay, have crowded the river into the sea. 

THE PHOTOGBAPH. 

No more important historical picture of the Methodist denomi- 
nation in New England could have been reproduced than the photo- 
graph we have bound in this Memorial. Among photographers the 
picture has been regarded as the most fortunate result of the best 
possible skill ever obtained in so large a combination of miscellane- 
ous portraits. Of the hundreds of faces taken in the picture, scarce- 
ly a single one can not be recognized by any person familiar with 
the face ; and reduced as the picture has been, to the size of the page 
in this book, it yet represents more than one hundred faces that can 
be readily seen by the naked eye, and with a simple glass every face 
can be as easily distinguished as in the original picture. 

The plate represents the New England Centenary Convention, 
held in Boston in 1866, which included most of the prominent Meth- 
odist ministers and laymen in the New England States. During an 
intermission of the regular proceedings of the Convention, its mem- 



_ AND THE OLD ELM. 

bers, by invitation of an artist in the city, were grouped around 
the Old Elm and their picture taken, which is here reprinted. It has 
never before been published in book form, and as many of the persons 
whose pictures are here presented are now deceased, it is appropri- 
ate that it should be preserved in some memorial way. It is proba- 
ble that the Convention was the only Methodist body that has ever 
met under the tree since the preaching of Lee, and previous to this 
Anniversary. 

It is imposible to print a key to even the original picture ; but 
the following named persons can be found with little or no difficulty 
in the photograph we have published : — 



Ex-Gov. Claflin, Pres't of Convention, 

Father Taylor, 

Father Merrill, 

Father Jennison, 

Father Kelley, 

Father Sargent, 

The Rev. E. O. Haven, D.D., 

Joseph Cummings, D.D., 
N. E. Cobleigh, D.D., 
David Patten, D.D., 
L. D. Barrows, D.D., 
James Porter, D.D., 
Jefferson Hascall, D.D., 
James Pike, D.D., 
David Sherman, D.D., 
William Butler, D.D., 
J. H. Twombly, D.D., 
Chas. W. Cushing, 
C. H. Hanaford, 
A. Herrick, 
L. R. S. Brewster, 
Justin Barrows, 
J. E. C. Sawyer, 
' E. A. Titus, 
E. W. Virgin, 
Joshua Gill, 
A. J. Church, 
Mo sely D wight, 
W. C. High, 

Hon. Lee Claflin, 

Hon. George M. Buttrick, 

B. B. Russell, Esq., 

John G. Cary, Esq., 

Fred. A. Clapp, Esq., 



Bishop M. Simpson, D.D., 

The Rev. H. W. Warren, D.D., 
" • George Webber, D.D., 
" S. W. Coggeshall, D.D., 
" D. Dorchester, D.D., 
- J. O. Peck, D.D., 
" M. J. Talbot, D.D., 
" William McDonald, 
" M. M. Parkhurst, 
" J. A. Lansing, 
11 C. L. McCurdy, 
" Pliny Wood, 
" E. A. Manning, 
" Loranus Crowell, 
" Lewis B. Bates, 
« C. W. MiUen, 
" T. J. Abbott, 
" Theo. L. Flood, 
" Gershom F. Cox, 
" D. B. Randall, 
" Israel Luce, 
" Charles Young, 
" James Mather, 
" W. W. Colburn, 
" F. K. Stratton, 
" W. P. Ray, 
■ " F. G. Morris, 
" W. F. Morrison, 
11 J. W. F. Barnes, 

Hon. Liverus Hull, 

FranMin Rand, Esq., 

William Noble, Esq., 

A. D. Wait, Esq.*, 

David Snow, Esq. 



"And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He 
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached 
unto them Jesus, and the resurrection." — Acts xvii. 18. 

"Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed." — Acts 
xvii. 34. 

" And he continued, there a year and six months, teaching the 
word of God among them." — Acts xviii. 11. 





flitor of mm\fa. 


HYMN 


" All hail the power of Jesus' name." 




SUNG BY CONGREGATION. 


PRAYER. 




THE REV. L. R. THAYER, D.D., EAST BOSTON. 


HYMN 


" Sock of Ages." 




SUNG BY CONGREGATION. 


MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 




THE REV. J. W. HAMILTON, BOSTON. 


HYMN 


■" There were Ninety and Nine." 




SUNG BY C. J. LITTLEFIELD. 


ADDRESS 


" Early Out- Door Preaching." 




THE REV. A. B. KENDIG, CHARLESTOWN. 


HYMN 


"Blow ye the Trumpet, blow I" 




. SUNG BY CONGREGATION. 


ADDRESS 


" Adaptation of Methodism to the 
Common People." 




THE REV. L. B. BATES, SOUTH BOSTON. 


HYMN 


" Gome sinners to the Gospel feast." 




SUNG BY CONGREGATION. 


PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. 


THE REV 


W. F. WARREN, LL.D., PRES. BOSTON UNIVERSITY. 



Thou art gone to the grave ! but thy work shall not perish, 
That work which the Spirit of Wisdom hath blest ; 

His strength shall sustain it, His comforts shall cherish, 
And make it to prosper, though thou art at rest. 

— Bishop Eeber, 

Faithful Cross ! above all other, 

One and only noble tree ! 
None in foliage, none in blossom, 

None in fruit thy peers may be ; 
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, 

Sweetest weight is hung on thee. 

— Venantius Fortunatus. 



Memorial Address. 



THE REV. J. W. HAMILTON. 



All hail the power of Jesus' name ! 

Let angels prostrate fall ; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

O that with yonder sacred throng 

We at his feet may fall ! 
We'll join the everlasting song, 

And crown him Lord of all. 



Memorial Address. 



-«♦*- 



*T~T~^E seldom recall the preaching of a sermon by 
V V observing its anniversary in a formal and public 
way. But we are called together to-night by the re- 
collection of a simple service, more memorable for the 
train of events it has induced than for the character of 
the sermon which the minister preached. Scarcely a 
line of the preacher's words can be found, and no re- 
cord of his text has been kept ; and, if it were not for 
the four-score and five years of the Church, whose line 
has gone out from the trunk of this tree to the top- 
most reach of New England hills, and the farthest 
stretch of our coast on the sea, the name of the man who 
stood where I stand would be like the leaves which 
sheltered his head, when the wailing winds came after 
him and brushed them away. But the day that Jesse 
Lee first preached under this Old Elm, on Boston Com- 
mon, a Methodist child was born, and " of the increase 
of his government and peace there shall be no end." 

Boston had borne Methodist children before, but they 
were dead and buried, with not even a mark at the grave. 

On the 24th of September, A. D. 1736, a storm at 
sea blew an English vessel into Boston Bay, and Charles 
Wesley, who was a passenger on board, bound from 
Charleston to London, landed at this port, and at some 

11 



12 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

time during the month preached in King's Chapel the 
first Methodist sermon ever heard in New England. 
But the Wesleyan Society had not then been formed, 
and he was simply recognized as an English Episcopal 
divine. And, though he remained a number of weeks 
in the town, he was sick much of the time, and his 
sermons and services were confined to the Episcopal 
Church. ' • 

September 18th, 1740, George Whitefield came to 
Boston, from Newport, Rhode Island, where he had 
landed from a Southern sloop the previous Sunday 
evening. His reputation had long preceded him, 
and great expectations were awakened among the peo- 
ple. He was met on the road four miles from Boston, 
by the Governors son, and a delegation of other gen- 
tlemen, composed of ministers and laymen, who receiv- 
ed him " with great gladness," and tendered him the 
hospitality of the town. But learning that he would 
be refused the use of the pulpits in the very same 
churches to which the Methodist poet had been invited, 
he began his ministry in the Congregational churches. 
They soon proved too small, however, for the great 
crowds that rushed to hear him ; and, on Saturday, the 
20th of September, he came to the Common, and under 
the hospitable shade of this old tree, declared, iri the 
open field, the unsearchable riches of Christ, before a 
congregation of eight thousand people who had followed 
him. But the numberless multitudes who eagerly lis- 
tened to that son of thunder were a shepherdless sheep, 
and when he was parted from them were scattered like 
chaff before the winds. 

Thirty-two years later, Richard Boardman, one of the 
Wesleyan appointed missionaries, wandered into Bos- 



AND THE OLD ELM. 13 

ton from his ministry on the Southern sea-board, and 
somewhere along the lanes and streets of the town, 
gathered a company of humble worshippers who were 
willing to be called Methodists.* But when the Mis- 
sionary was gone, the mission expired, and who these 
Methodists were, and where they were, no one now can 
tell. 

In Northern British America Methodism is older 
than in the United States ; and, in 1784, when the de- 
mand for workmen there was more than the Wesleyan 
supply, William Black came South to the Christmas 
Conference in search of another Methodist minister for 
Nova Scotia. He came and went by the way of Boston. 
Himself a Methodist preacher, he stopped in Boston to 
preach. Somewhere at the North End, when he first 
came into the town, he preached twice before leaving 
for Baltimore. And when he returned, having induced 
the Eev. Freeborn Garrettson to go to the work in the 
Provinces, he remained six months, preaching and hold- 
ing Methodist meetings. But the churches, with here 
and there a single exception, were closed against his 
preaching, and his ministry was limited to private fam- 
ilies and the public school-houses. His labors, never- 
theless, were encouraging and successful, and a small 
society was organized in the older part of the town. 
Being compelled to return to the work for which he 
only came as an ambassador, he was permitted to ad- 
dress his farewell words to the people from the pulpit 
of the Eev. Dr. Elliot, in the New North Church. So 
great was the desire of "the people to hear the man of 
God, that more than two thousand persons crowded 
into the house and about the doors and windows on the 
outside. With no little anxiety for the future welfare 



14 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

of his people, the pastor committed his new charge, in 
a carefully and earnestly written letter, to Bishop Asbu- 
ry. The letter, however, was never received, and the 
little band of believers again separated among the other 
denominations of the town, and the preacher and his 
parish were soon forgotten. 

Mr. Garrettson, returning from Nova Scotia in A.D. 
1787, arrived in Boston on the 13th or 14th of April, 
where he remained until the 17th, but not being ad- 
mitted to any of the pulpits in the town, he only 
preached a few sermons in some private houses, and 
then passed on to Providence. The very week before 
the arrival of Lee in Boston, Mr. Garrettson visited 
the town again, and though finding little encourage- 
ment to continue his ministry in the place, he " went 
from end to end of the town and visited several who 
were friendly." In the afternoon of the fourth of July, 
he preached in a meeting house which had formerly be- 
longed to the Rev. Dr. Mather, and the following even- 
ing in the same place. And before leaving for Provi- 
dence, he engaged the use of the meeting-house, and a 
place for a preacher to board. But Boston was not to 
be so easily won, for the engagements were gone when 
Garrettson was gone. 

Nothing but the severest heroism has ever character- 
ized this world's successful efforts for religious reform. 

"The unconquerable will, 
And courage never to submit or yield," 

have possessed the man of God no less than Milton's 
arch enemy. Methodism never could have been possible 
except for a muscular divinity — man moved of God. 



AND THE OLD ELM- 15 

The Methodist movement came at a time when Chris- 
tianity had happened upon a period of her adversity — 
not an adversity that came from without, in the form 
of a fierce and open persecution, but an adversity from 
within that overshadowed her moral life and moral pow- 
ers with a character inconsistent with her profession. 
A religious irreligiousness is more threatening and 
dangerous than downright wickedness. Byron some- 
where says : — 

" There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms 
As rum and true religion ; " 

but where faith's discernment falls so low that the com- 
fort of the one is quite as satisfactory as the comfort of 
the other, no other condition of misfortune can render 
the attainment of true religion more impossible. But both 
the Old and the New World reeled in some such irrelig- 
ious revelry in the middle of the last century. The Kev. 
Augustus M. Toplady, a minister himself of the estab- 
lished church, and who died in 1778, said in a sermon 
preached some time before his death, " I believe no de- 
nomination of professing Christians, the Church of Rome 
excepted, was so generally void of the light and life of 
godliness, so generally destitute of the doctrine and of 
the grace of the gospel, as was the Church of England, 
considered as a body, about fifty years ago. At that 
period a converted minister in the Establishment was as 
great a wonder as a comet." And Bishop Butler, of 
the same church, within six months of Whitefield's or- 
dination, said: "It is come, I know not how, to be 
taken for granted by many persons that Christianity is 
not so much as a subject of inquiry ; but that it is now at 



16 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

length discovered to be fictitious ; and accordingly they 
treat it as if in the present age this were an agreed 
point among all people of discernment; and nothing 
remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth 
and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for its hav- 
ing so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." 
The clergy ' ' were useful for getting up tables of popu- 
lation, and for enforcing royal edicts, such as for the 
extirpation of locusts," and for preaching sermons on 
"Nature, Morality, Agriculture and the Cow-Pox." 
" Tendencies are shown by extreme cases." 

And New England, more than any other part of the 
American Colonies, resembled the Old World in its 
loss of religious life and religious power. Controversy 
had carried away piety, and many were in the ministry 
and membership of the churches who had lulled them- 
selves to sleep with worldly delusions. "As persons 
in the frozen regions are said to sleep longer and more 
soundly than others, so did they, and a more terrific 
blast of the trumpet of the gospel was required to rouse 
and awaken them from their spiritual slumbers." 

Methodism was a religious necessity. It came not 
as a system of doctrines, but as an inspiration of soul. 
It taught nothing as its creed but the power of godli- 
ness. The Wesleys themselves declared their Society 
only ' ' a company of men having the form and seeking 
the power of godliness." The Methodist preachers only 
differed from other preachers in their demonstration of 
the spirit and power of God. God "thrust them out 
to raise a holy people." They were not destitute of the 
essential doctrines of the Scriptures. By no means ; 
but their peculiar distinguishments were rather the 
spirit and life they gave to the doctrines already preach- 



AND THE OLD ELM. 17 

ed and believed, than the doctrines themselves. No de- 
nomination ever embraced within its pale more diversi- 
ty of mind than the Methodist Church. It has had 
within its communion, Calvinists and Arminians, Bap- 
tists and Restorationists, some who have believed in 
the Sonship of Christ as only beginning at his birth, 
and some who have believed his Sonship eternal. 
There have been some who have believed in regenera- 
tion by baptism, and some who have believed all chil- 
dren regenerate when born. And some, indeed, of 
these differential men, whose minds could not be squared 
by the established articles of the Methodist faith, have 
gone into the Episcopal office, 



Kot always right in all men's eyes, 
But faithful to the light within." 



Methodism, in fine, has not endeavored to sustain its 
spiritual life by its orthodoxy, but "has sustained its 
orthodoxy by devoting its chief care to its spiritual 
life." The great differences of opinion inhere in men's 
minds, and all men could not or would not believe all 
things alike, if God had explained everything. 

But Methodist preachers were great disturbers of the 
peace. It was, however, because men were not at 
peace with God but with the world. They, therefore, 
only expected to elicit persecution where they failed of 
conversion. And they seldom came short of expecta- 
tion. The disciple was not above his Master, nor the 
servant above his Lord. They were not infrequently 
heaped with abuse and counted worthy only of con- 
tempt. No terms were too discourteous or severe for 
their denunciation. Few men have attained more no- 



18 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

toriety in the English Church than the clergyman who 
wrote the following attack upon the Methodists in 
the early part of this century, in as reputable a period- 
ical as the Edinburgh Review: "We are quite deter- 
mined, if we can prevent such an evil, that sober and 
rational Christianity shall not be eaten up by the nasty 
and numerous vermin of Methodism." And when a 
pious Methodist preacher ventured to reply by disclaim- 
ing any such want of courtesy and Christian criticism 
as that with which his church was attacked, the same 
writer retorted through the same Review, that the 
Methodists " should remember that it is not the prac- 
tice with destroyers of vermin to allow the little vic- 
tims a veto upon the weapons used against them. If 
this were otherwise, we should have one set of vermin 
banishing small-tooth combs, another protesting against 
mouse-traps, a third prohibiting the finger and thumb, 
a fourth exclaiming against the intolerable infamy of 
using soap and water. It is impossible, however, to lis- 
ten to such pleas. They must all be caught, killed and 
cracked, in the manner, and by the instruments which 
are found the most efficacious to their destruction, and 
the more they cry out, the greater, plainly, is the skill 
used against them. We are convinced a little laughter 
will do them more harm than all the arguments in the 
world." And though the poor old man's follies did not 
cease with his younger years, — for thirty years after- 
wards he gave his name to the article he had anony- 
mously published in the Review, and then printed it in 
a book, — yet he lived long enough to learn that what he 
deplored he could not prevent, and to admit that Meth- 
odists had more in their heads than Episcopal clergy- 
men had caught with their combs, and enough in their 



AND THE OLD ELM. 19 

hearts to love even him. If he had lived thirty years 
longer he might have seen a Dean of his own Church 
of scarcely less repute, and certainly more note, rum- 
aging through the relics and records of City Eoad and 
Epworth, hunting up the Methodist story, and then 
heard him lecture upon the Life of Wesley at Oxford, 
and have heard the Methodist taking rank from a 
Churchman's lips above even the higher ranks in the 
Churchman's line. 

And the New England, like the Old, never honored 
clergymen more with degrees than when the Metho- 
dists preached in the streets of her cities and the wide 
open fields. It is true she only conferred the little d — d, 
but it came as a pledge of nonconformity to the world, 
and with so much more of meaning and sincere zest 
than the capitals come from the colleges now, that it 
stands with their names as a historic witness of their 
fidelity. Whitefield was called in New England "a 
vagrant,*' " enthusiast with ill-pointed zeal," "a thief 
and a robber," and every " exhortation" he delivered in 
Boston, one Doctor Douglas has said, was a damage to 
the town of a thousand pounds. Harvard University 
published pamphlets against him, and Yale College 
scattered her invectives all over the land. What was 
said of Whitefield was abundantly said of all other 
Methodist men ; and the opposition and persecution 
was not urged against the Oxford Methodists alone, 
but against even Edwards, and other revivalists, in the 
great New England awakening, which was only a won- 
derful result of Methodism Congregationalized. 

But the opposition and persecution only awakened 
among these pious preachers the more interest in the 
people whom they sought to win from their ignorant 



20 



MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 



bliss and to save. Despite the difficulties and self-de- 
nials of their ministry, it was a pride with them to dare 
the untried work, or seek for hazardous toil. It was a 
pious ambition among the most earnest men to " break 
the first bush and cultivate new fields ; for it was custom- 
ary with the early Methodist preachers in their travels 
through the country, to break a bush at a fork of the 
road, or where they left it, to indicate their course to those 
who came after them. The side of the road on which 
the broken bush was found, pointed out the path to be 
followed." And in more of the States and Territories 
than one, it is because the Methodist preachers left bro- 
ken bushes along their paths into the unbroken forests, 
that 

" Behind the squaws light birch canoe 

The steamer rocks and raves, 
And city lots are staked for sale, 

Above old Indian graves." 

No more original " pathfinder of empire" crossed the 
Rocky Mountains than the Rev. Jason Lee. 

The obstacles in the way of success and the often re- 
peated failures in Boston were only preparing the way 
and the men for the ministry in New England towns 
and villages. While disappointment and discourage- 
ment came to the Conferences as frequent report of the 
work in Boston, the great heart of Jesse Lee, then only 
a young man in the ministry, swelled with an ambition 
to leave his home in Virginia, and come to stay in the 
unpropitious fields of New England. He believed in 
God and never despaired of Boston. As early as A.D. 
1784, when visiting South Carolina, he met a young 
man from Massachusetts who so impressed his mind 
with the need of New England, that he determined to 



AND THE OLD ELM. 21 

press the Bishop for permission to go at once and preach 
to the people whom he believed would hear him. But 
it was not until the Spring of A.D. 1790 that he was 
permitted to start for Boston. He had, however, exten- 
sively travelled and preached in Southern and Western 
New England the previous Summer and Autumn. 

On the 9th of July he arrived in this city, and at 
once " sought a place where he might publish the word 
of salvation ; but every effort was fruitless." For two 
days he persistently pressed his petitions upon an indif- 
ferent people, meeting here and there a threatening op- 
position. Finally, turning from the churches and 
houses, he determined, like Whitefield before him, to 
go into God's first temples and preach under the trees. 
" Accordingly, on Saturday he gave notice of his inten- 
tion to preach on the Common on the afternoon of the 
ensuing Sabbath." Three or four friends were found 
who were ready to go with him, one or two of whom 
carried a table for his platform or pulpit. Joseph Snell- 
ing, one of the table-bearers, afterwards became a mem- 
ber .of the first Methodist society organized in Boston, 
and he was also the first from the society to enter the 
Methodist ministry. He lived for many years a useful 
and effective preacher, and though he labored for a time 
in the Methodist Protestant Church, yet before his 
death he came back, as he said, to die among his breth- 
ren. He often delighted in recalling this early associa- 
tion with Lee, and the fact of his witnessing the en- 
trance of Washington into Boston, at the end of the 
siege, when the British had fled. Thomas Restieaux is 
reported to have been the other young man who assisted 
in carrying the table to the Common, and notwithstand- 
ing we have found it difficult to determine how truthful- 



22 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

ly» y e ^ he will long be remembered as a faithful and 
zealous Christian man, venerable for his piety and long- 
continued membership in the old church at the North 
End. But foremost in anxiety for the success of the 
service was the preacher himself. 

"Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed, 
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade." 

At the time appointed there were few persons 
present; but taking his stand on the table, Lee 
began to sing a Methodist hymn, a never-failing 
experiment in calling the people near. Then, kneel- 
ing before his congregation, he offered a simple but 
fervent prayer. ' * When he entered upon the sub- 
ject matter of his text," said one who was present and 
heard him preach, " it was with such an easy, natural 
flow of expression, and in such a tone of voice, that I 
could not refrain from weeping, and many others were 
affected in the same way. When he was done, and we 
had an opportunity of expressing our views to each other, 
it was agreed that such a man had not visited New Eng- 
land since the days of Whitefield. I heard him again, 
and thought I could follow him to the ends of the earth." 
It was estimated that between two and three thousand 
gave quiet and solemn attention to his warning voice. 

The only record of what the preacher said I happened 
to find in an anecdote printed in a Boston paper the 
week after the sermon was preached. It read as fol- 
lows : — 

"On Sunday evening last, as a Huntingtonian Methodist preach- 
er was holding forth to a large concourse of people, assembled by 
the novelty of the circumstance, on the Common, he took occasion 
to observe that he who professed repentance without faith was like a 



AND THE OLD ELM. 23 

man rowing a boat in troubled waters with one oar. ' This man,' 
said he, ' must go over first on one side and then on the other, but 
will never get ahead.' On which a sailor, one of the audience, said 
pretty audibly, with an oath, ' Why, then, don't he scull?'" 

No intimation was given that the preacher replied ; 
but no man would have been more likely to reply than 
he, for his ready wit was known in all the churches, and 
it was reported in after years, when a single vote defeat- 
ed his election to the episcopacy, that he was " too full 
of wit and humor for the bishopric ; " but to this he re- 
sponded, when it came to his ears, that it would be unna- 
tural to assume the gravity of the office previous to re- 
ceiving it. " Put me in, and I will sustain its dignity." 
The good man lived too soon for his possible episcopal 
honors : they have elected both witty and wise men 
many times since, and the wittiest men have been the 
wisest bishops. 

Few men possessed more power over an audience 
than Lee. One who knew him intimately has said : 
" It was a kind of fixed principle with him never to let 
a congregation go from his preaching entirely unaffect- 
ed. He would excite them in some way. He would 
make them weep if he could, bringing his fine voice, 
warm affections, and glowing eloquence to bear upon 
this result with strong and earnest intensity. If he 
failed in this, he would essay to alarm them with deep 
and solemn warning of words and manner ; and, if all 
failed, he would shake their sides with some pertinent 
illustration or anecdote, and then, having moved them, 
seek by all the appliances of truth, earnestness, and 
affection, to guide their stirred-up thoughts and sympa- 
thies to the fountain of living waters." 

As long as he was refused admission to the churches 



24 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

in Boston, he continued his ministry to the crowds on 
the Common, and though Lynn was the first to open 
her doors, and extend him a welcome, yet, with all the 
persistency of the woman in her prayer to the unjust 
judge, and with all confidence in the certain ultimate 
success of his preaching, he remained in Boston until 
God opened one of the alleys in the town, and the 
people permitted him and assisted him to build a house 
of worship there. Much of the money for the building, 
however, he begged in Southern cities, and carried 
to the builders with his own hands. Having planted the 
church in Boston, he now yielded its training to other 
preachers always ready to follow him, while he passed 
on to newer fields and other trials. 

The long line of continued Methodist history in this 
city began, therefore, under this great tree, and to 
Jesse Lee must be ascribed the origin of Methodism in 
New England. 

Speaking of his rare career, the historian of Metho- 
dism says : * ' He is the great man who achieves great 
results by great endeavors. History will accord to 
Lee no ordinary share of such fame. He possessed no 
pre-eminent intellectual faculty. His literary attain- 
ments were not above mediocrity. His opinions on 
great ecclesiastical measures would not, we think, entitle 
him to the claim of superior legislative sagacity. But, 
with a good practical judgment for ordinary affairs, 
considerable general intelligence, a remarkably simple 
and Saxon style, strong sensibilities, which were easily 
kindled in discourse, and a rare native faculty of wit, 
he combined an executive energy which has few paral- 
lels in our history, except Wesley, Asbury, and it may 
be, Garrettson. His energy was not impulsive ; it was 



AND THE OLD ELM. 25 

singularly cool and continuous. Its calmness was its 
most intrinsic and valuable trait. His great travels, 
his incessant preaching, the imperturbable persistence 
with which he brooked opposition and all obstacles, 
continually and tranquilly repeating his endeavors 
against them until they disappeared, — these charac- 
teristics distinguishing a minister of thirty-three years, 
mark him as no ordinary man. The great results that 
have followed his labors will always entitle him to the 
reputation of greatness." 

When this first sermon was preached here, Wesley 
was yet alive, and Methodism possessed little or none 
of its worldly power of to-day. Boston had less than 
twenty thousand inhabitants, and the old monument, 
instead of the State House, stood in front of the 
preacher on Beacon Hill. There were only seventeen 
or eighteen churches in the town, and the travel to 
New York was by two stages and twelve horses. And 
though Boston has gathered twenty-five Methodist 
churches and five thousand members, and New England 
hundreds of churches and a hundred thousand mem- 
bers since then, these memories of early Methodist 
faith and love and zeal, compel us often times to cry, 

"0 for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still ! " 

This is not a denominational day, for our preachers 
never began to preach for a church, but a pious people 
in every church. And the marks of the Methodist 
ministry are found in every church of evangelical Chris- 
tendom, and at the sound of Methodist music you can 
marshal an army from every church under the sun. 



26 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE. 

And this is not a Methodist tree, nor does it belong 
to the City Council, though it has a civic history, too. 
Boston may care for it and guard it, as she has honor- 
ably done for centuries already, but it belongs to 
Christianity to the end of time. 

" Historic town ! thou holdest sacred dust 
Once known to men as pious, learned, just j 
And one memorial pile that dares to last. 
But Memory greets with reverential kiss 
No spot in all thy circuit sweet as this, 
Touched by that modest glory as it past ; 
O'er which this elm hath piously displayed 
These many years its monumental shade." 

Grand Old Elm ! May never a branch be broken, 
and never a root disturbed while the city looks on the 
sea. New and fresh every year may its leaves come 
forth in the sun, type of that new life that may bud 
and blossom and yield its fruit in all the churches per- 
ennially. And may the memories of this day linger 
in every house of the city, that Christ may be preached 
and His people saved. 

" O that the world might taste and see 
The riches of his grace ! 
The arms of love that compass me 
Would all mankind embrace." 



Early Out-door Methodist 
Preaching. 



THE REV. A. B. KENDIG. 



There were ninety and nine that safely lay 

In the shelter of the fold, 
But one had wandered far away, 

In the desert so lone and cold ; 
Away on the mountains wild and bare, 
Away from the Shepherd's tender care. 

Shepherd, hast thou not here thy ninety and nine ; 

Are they not enough for thee? 
But the Shepherd replied, " This one of mine, 

Has wandered away from me ; 
The way may be wild and rough and steep, 
I go to the desert to find my sheep." 

But none of the ransomed ever knew 

How deep were the waters crossed, 
Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through 

Ere he found the sheep that was lost. 
Away in the desert he heard its cry, 
So feeble and helpless and ready to die. 

And far up the mountain, thunder riven, 

And along the rocky steep, 
There rose the glad song of joy to heaven, 

"Rejoice, I have found my sheep ! " 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 
" Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own ! " 



EARLY OUT-DOOR METHODIST 
PREACHING. 



"lam as one born out of due time," having only 
learned at six o'clock yesterday afternoon that I was ex- 
pected to participate in this service. But I am right 
glad to be here, that Iowa and Massachusetts may shake 
hands together on this classic spot, and under this his- 
toric tree. 

Out-door preaching boasts of great antiquity ; in- 
deed, it is the oldest kind of preaching ; so that it is not 
only poetically but historically true, that "the groves 
were God's first temples," and of necessity the first 
preaching as done by patriarchs and prophets, was done 
under foliaged-domed forests, by the murmuring water- 
courses, or in the crowded marts of busy trade. It 
has the highest sanction and warrant also. For not 
only did the noble men of the old dispensation deliver 
their awfully grand and impressive messages in the open 
fields, and under the blue sky, but Jesus, The Model, 
uttered most of His gracious sayings, and pronounced 
most of His discourses, in the village streets, on the 
lake shores, or on the mountain slopes : wherever, in- 
deed, He found the people collected together. 

The first building erected for worship, according to 
monetheistic faith, was the Temple of Solomon, and 

29 



30 



MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 



this seemed needed as the completion of that series of 
object-lessons by which the Supreme taught divine 
truth to that sensuous age ; and because of the cumber- 
some sacrificial and typical character of the services. 

But this temple was begun only about one thousand 
years before Christ. No churches were erected by the 
early Christians until about A. D. 200 ; and then, in A.D. 
305, they were all razed to the ground by order of Dio- 
cletian. It was only under Constantine that Christian 
churches were built, and fostered into permanence. 
Antecedent to this, they did their preaching, praying, 
and worshipping in caves, or on mountains, in private 
houses, or retired valleys. And it is worthy of obser- 
vation, that with the erection of churches, religion be- 
came less a thing of experience, than of form; and, 
losing the warmth of its early love, out-door preach- 
ing fell into entire neglect, and the masses were un- 
cared for, except as they would report themselves at 
the more formal and public church service. To me, 
the fact that the heathen first caught the idea of a tem- 
ple for their deity from the sepulchres of their dead, is 
most significant. These early temples were regarded 
as the residence of the god they worshipped, into 
which only the priest entered, while the people offered 
their homage and devotion on the outside. Is it not too 
often true, that our church buildings are only magnifi- 
cent mausoleums in which earnest Christianity is extinct, 
and only the pulseless skeleton of form is preserved ? 

Under the Wesley s, their coadjutors and itinerant 
successors, out-door preaching was revived; if not from 
choice, from necessity ; for houses of worship, halls and 
school buildings were closed against them. And this 
was true of the New, as well as of Old England. 



AND THE OLD ELM. 31 

Hence the street corner, the public parks, or gardens, 
the fields, or woe els, were the only places left them. 
Baptised of the Holy Ghost, and commissioned of God, 
as they were, to evangelize the people, they pushed 
out into the thickest of the foe (blest incendiaries of 
the cross !) until the combustible material that surround- 
ed them was soon lighted and burning with holy fervor. 
And right well adapted to this field service were those 
early Methodist preachers ; for, as a rule, they were 
the sons of poor parents, whose only legacy to their 
children was (aside from grace) the best of all, sound 
bodies. From childhood, most of them were accustom- 
ed to out-door sports and work, and inured from youth 
to severe manual labor. Hence, they were men of stal- 
wart frames, iron constitutions, and incredible powers 
or endurance; there were few dyspeptics, and fewer 
consumptives, among them. Men who could ride on 
horse-back from one to five thousand miles a year, 
through all kinds of weather, shooting their own game, 
cooking their own meals, blazing their way through 
trackless forests, sleeping in the rude cabins of the 
early settlers, or under the open sky, in woods or on 
prairies, with the saddle for a pillow, and the earth for 
a bed, were in a good humor with Dame Nature, and 
she most graciously bestowed upon them her greatest 
blessing — health. With good stomach, active liver, 
and sound lungs, they were blessed with excellent 
voices ; being rich, mellow, penetrating and far-reach- 
ing. Many of them could be distinctly heard, in the 
quiet evening, a mile away. 

Such men as Lee, Garrettson, Bangs, Finley, Cart- 
wright, Swazey, Sansom, Bigelow, Strange, and others, 
could arrest and hold the attention of any audience on 



32 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

earth, melting them into tenderness, rousing them to 
activity, or awing them into silence, by the silvery 
eloquence of their utterances. They were sent to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel," and out into the 
mountains, forests, and by-ways they went ; for they 
were sent with a message to the people, and the people 
they meant to reach. 

By this persistent out-door work, they proved two 
things, viz. : That they believed the world was their 
parish, and the poor their parishoners. In this early 
day Methodism was esteemed as a clever device of the 
devil, by which to deceive the elect, and had, therefore, 
no rights which the churches were bound to respect. 
It was regarded as without warrant of Scripture, an in- 
novation so startling as to imperil the sanity of com- 
munity, the welfare of souls, and the very existence of 
the Church itself. 

But human nature is a queer thing to deal with, and 
these enthusiastic ministers, when denied the churches 
and public halls, instead of going to their original call- 
ings, felt "that necessity was laid" upon them to go 
into the streets, to sing their songs, offer their prayers, 
and preach their sermons ; and, thank God ! " the com- 
mon people heard" them "gladly." The crowd, you 
know, will instinctively help the weak against the 
strong, and so they naturally took sides with these 
harmless but persecuted ministers, giving them their 
sympathy and attention at first, and very soon their 
support and affection. 

From these people converts were obtained, then soci- 
eties were formed, and then followed the opening of 
private houses for religious services, then the barns, 
then followed the erection of churches ; and Method- 



AND THE OLD ELM. 33 

ism, with her fiery earnestness, began to burn her way 
into all ranks of society, gathering strength in influence 
and numbers so rapidly, that she smiled at opposition, 
and steadily labored to spread " scriptural holiness" in 
the earth. 

And right here, history repeats itself; for having our 
influence, numbers, and costly churches, we became 
formal, having lost much of our early simplicity and 
earnestness, and out-door preaching, except on very 
special occasions, had fallen into very general disuse ; 
so that, until quite recently, few among us could be 
found to stand on a store-box " singing for Jesus," or 
delivering a gospel message of life and salvation to the 
hurrying crowd of thoughtless men, who, forgetful of 
God, and careless of their souls, were being borne with 
the rapidity of time, to remediless woe. 

It is true, the masses do not come to our churches, 
and are not reached by our ministry. If we would 
save the people, and build up our churches, it is as 
true now as ever, that we must " go out and bring them 
in" We can find and reach them on the street corner, 
in the parks, public gardens, or on the Common, and 
if we interest them (as we will if our hearts are in the 
work) they will follow us to our churches, and be easily 
won to Christ. 

I thank God, that to the great awakening of 1857 
and '58 are we indebted for the ' ' Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association ; " and to our terrible fratricidal w r ar 
for "The Christian Commission," both of which went 
to the people in the simplicity of the gospel, to preach 
Jesus, and offer a willing Saviour to' the willing soul. 
To these organizations are we indebted for the revival 
of the modern church, of out-door preaching : this 
God-blessecl method of saving souls. 



34 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE. 

I would that God would send upon us His ministers a 
baptism so full, that it would push us out to the front 
all along the line, instead of lying inactive behind our 
breast- works, tempting disease, and cultivating melan- 
choly ! If we would but go out on the skirmish line, 
with faith in God, and in His word, I am sure many of 
us would make ourselves illustrious in success, and 
leave our names embalmed in the memories of hundreds 
saved through our labors. Oh, that from this sacred 
hour, and its hallowed associations past and present, 
we may go out everywhere after the people, bringing 
the lost back to the fold and the Shepherd ! Lord help 
us ! Amen. 



THE ADAPTATION OF METHODISM TO 
THE COMMON PEOPLE. 



-<♦♦- 



THE REV. L. B. BATES. 



Blow ye the trumpet, blow 
The gladly solemn sound ; 
Let all the nations know, 
• To earth's remotest bound, 
The year of Jubilee is come ; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

Jesus, our great High Priest, 
Hath full atonement made : 
Ye weary spirits, rest ; 
Ye mournful souls, be glad : 
The year of jubilee is come ; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 



THE ADAPTATION OF METHODISM TO 
THE COMMON PEOPLE. 



" Woodman, spare that tree ! 
Touch not a single bough ! 
In youth it sheltered me, 
And I'll protect it now ; " 



But we will elect only the men for City Councillors who 
will guard every tree on these grounds. Enough, then 
for this Old Elm. Other words and quotations are more 
appropriate here and now. 

Paul said : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of 
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save sinners" 

John, in the same ministry, declared: "And the 
Spirit and the bride say, Come ! And let him that 
heareth say, Come ! And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 

And Jesse Lee, nearly eighteen hundred years after- 
ward, followed the apostle and evangelist in his first 
announcement to the multitudes who were passing to 
and fro in the shade of these trees-. In a clear and reso- 
nant voice, and simple Wesleyan measure, he gave out 
and sang : — 

" Come, sinners, to the gospel feast! 
Let every soul be Jesus' guest ; 
i e need not one be left behind, 
For God hath bidden all mankind." 
4 37 



38 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

And this is the beginning and ending of Methodism, — 
salvation, present, full, and eternal, provided for all the 
race, and enjoyed by all who comply with the conditions 
of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

It is the province of the Methodist Church to carry 
the knowledge of this salvation to all for whom it was 
intended. * 

Mark testified that " the common people heard Christ 
gladly." The gospel of the Son of God is in harmony 
with the common sense of the multitude, and whenever 
and wherever proclaimed in its truthfulness, it meets 
with a cordial welcome from the masses. When Jesse 
Lee, eighty-five years ago, sang the last line of the first 
stanza of that first hymn — 

"Let every soul be Jesus' guest," 

a man in the audience repeated to himself the words af- 
ter him — 

" Let every soul be Jesus' guest " — 

" Why, then," said he, "/can be saved. I have been 
taught to believe that only a part of the race could be 
saved ; but if this man's singing be true, all may be 
saved. I, then, will seek the Lord." And he did seek 
God, and found him to the joy of his soul. 

Methodism is adapted to the common people in that 
it makes no distinctions. All have sinned, all are per- 
ishing, all are in danger of death and hell ; but we 
preach one Saviour for all, and one heaven for all, at- 
tainable through faith in His name. Methodism cares 
for all, and seeks to save all with an equal ministry for 
all. While some of the wisest, wealthiest, and most 



AND THE OLD ELM. 39 

benevolent men of the nation and of the world can be 
found in the Methodist Church, yet many of them were 
found young, poor, ignorant, friendless, and alone ; they 
came to Methodist altars, there found Christ, and there 
entered the Church, and with God's blessing the Church 
has made them great blessings to the world. Methodist 
converts, from the common people, fill positions ot 
honor, trust, and usefulness everywhere to-day. They 
are first in mechanics, foremost in commerce, and emi- 
nent in literature, — throughout the realm of the arts and 
the sciences, in all places of dignity and of blessing 
to others, you will find representatives of the Church. 

The grand mission of Methodism in the years to come 
will be, as it has been in the years that are gone, to the 
common people ; and the very same simple appliances 
that have been useful in the past, must accomplish the 
work of the present and future. We must pray the 
same prayer, sing the same song, and preach the same 
Word. The fashion of Methodism never changes. I 
remember that Daniel Fillmore, Asa Kent, and Daniel' 
Webb, met in my father's house thirty years ago, and 
described the services whose anniversary we observe 
fco-day, and I see that another of the hymns you have 
appropriately printed on your programme is the very 
same one recalled by those men of God as that lined 
out by Jesse Lee under this Old Elm, — 

" Blow ye the trumpet, blow ! " 

Methodism has no other mission until the resurrec- 
tion morning comes, than to save the people. Man is 
lost, and our mission, like Christ's, is to find. him. The 
people are in darkness, and our mission is to bring 



40 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE. 

them into the light. We are to lift up Christ, and ke 
will draw all men unto himself. 

" Happy if with my latest breath 
I may but gasp his name ; 
Preach him to all, and cry in death : 
Behold ! behold the Lamb ! " 



Mr. Bates closed his remarks by inviting all who 
desired to seek the Saviour of sinners, to manifest it 
by raising their hands, and twelve or thirteen persons 
readily responded. 



Prayer and Benediction. 



THE REV. DR. WARREN. 



Come, sinners, to the gospel feast ; 
Let every soul be Jesus' guest ; 
Ye need not one be left behind, 
For God hath bidden all mankind. 

Sent by my Lord, on you I call ; 

The invitation is to all : — 

Come all the world ! come, sinner, thou ! 

All things in Christ are ready now. 



PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. 



Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, aid us to real- 
ize at this moment our dependence upon Thee. Take 
advantage, we beseech Thee, of our quickened sensibili- 
ties to draw us into nearer and more perfect fellowship 
with Thyself. We thank Thee for the holy memories 
which this hour renews and freshens. We bless Thee 
for the wondrous providence which is and ever hath 
been over Thy kingdom and people. Let it inspire us 
with new and loftier courage ; let it create in us a purer 
consecration to Christian work. So let us accomplish 
each our part in causing Thy kingdom everywhere to 
come. 

We especially entreat Thee to attend with heavenly 
energy these words of invitation to those who have not 
known Thy love. Let them sink deeply into every 
heart. Impress them upon every hardened conscience. 
Let many, as the fruit of this service, be brought into 
the fellowship of Thy grace. 

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy 
Spirit, be with us all forever. Amen. 

43 



Historical Sketch of the 
Great Tree. 



THE REV. J. W. HAMILTON. 



Nobody knows New England who is not on terms of intimacy 
with one of its elms. The elm comes nearer to having a soul than 
any other vegetable creature among us. It loves man as man loves 
it. It is modest and patient. It has a small flake of a seed which 
blows in everywhere and makes arrangements for coming up by- 
and-by. So, in spring, one finds a crop of baby elms among his 
carrots and parsnips, very weak and small compared to those succu- 
lent vegetables. The baby elms die. Most of them slain, unrecog- 
nized or unheeded by hand or hoe, as meekly as Herod's innocents. 
One of them gets overlooked, perhaps, until it has established a 
kind of right to stay. Three generations of carrot and parsnip- 
consumers have passed away, yourself among them, and now let 
your great-grandson look for the baby elm. Twenty-two feet of 
clean girth, three hundred and sixty-feet in the line that bounds its 
leafy circle, it covers the boy with such a canopy as neither glossy- 
leafed oak, nor insect-haunted linden, ever lifted into the summer 
skies. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 
GREAT TREE. 



The oldest inhabitant of Boston is the Great Tree 
in the Common. No citizen now living can remember 
when it was not venerable for its years and its history. 
No monument stands in the city that is older ; no 
family Bible has a record of its age. Before Washing- 
ton or Winthrop the tree was. And before Blaxton 
bought ground of the Indians, and Trimountaine or 
Shawmutt were the names of Boston ; when Chickata- 
but was chief Sachem, and sat with his council in the 
shade of the trees, the great elm stood forth in the 
sun, hospitable then as now. It is a patriarch among 
all the trees of its kind on the coast. 

But longevity is never indisputable, and few men 
who study chronology ever agree. The age of the tree 
is denied, and some one is found to account for its ori- 
gin. Fifty years ago, in the " Boston Commercial Ga- 
zette," a paper appeared which declared, on what au- 
thority was not mentioned, that Captain Henchman, 
an officer who had distinguished himself in the In- 
dian wars, had planted the tree A.D. 1670. The Cap- 
tain was a member of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Company, an ancestor of Governor Hancock, 

47 



48 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

and, the writer in the " Gazette " adds, that he planted 
this tree to shelter the company during their parades 
on the Common. But Dr. Warren, President of the 
Society of Natural History, in his book on the Great 
Tree, published A.D. 1855, unhesitatingly declares 
there was no foundation for such a legend, and he pre- 
sumes the only authority for the statement was a re- 
port emanating from a lady who was a near relation of 
a descendant of Captain Henchman. It was improbable 
that a tree should have been planted for shelter, in a 
situation so remote as that of this tree at that time. 
He had himself always lived in the vicinity of the Com- 
mon, and had a distinct recollection of its appearance 
for about seventy-five years, and when he first knew 
the Elm it bore stroug marks of decrepitude and ap- 
proaching dissolution. In a picture wrought with nee- 
dle-work A.D. 1755, by Miss Hannah Otis, aunt of the 
late distinguished orator and statesman, Harrison G. 
Otis, a large orifice was represented in the bark of the 
tree's trunk, through which it was said a boy eight or 
nine years old could creep into a larger cavity with- 
out difiiculty. April 2d A.D. 1825, the height of the 
tree was. sixty-five feet, circumference twenty-one feet 
eight inches at two feet six inches from the ground, 
and the branches extended in diameter eighty-six 
feet. Such dimensions represent it to have been a 
venerable tree even then. But in a map engraved dur- 
ing the administration of Governor Burnet, it was mark- 
ed as insulated from all other trees, from which we may 
gather that it was the tree already historically distinguish- 
ed, and in. another plan still older, A.D. 1722, it is again 
found in the same situation, an insulated tree, compara- 
tively of great size, from which it is inferred that it might 



AND THE OLD ELM. 49 

have been more than one hundred years old at that 
time. Besides all this, says Dr. Shurtleff, Boston's 
best topographer and most reliable historiographer, 
more than one hundred and ninety rings can be easily 
counted in the great branch that was broken off A.D. 
1860, and which must certainly be several years young- 
er than the tree itself, which alone carries back that 
portion of it to a period as early as the Henchman tra- 
dition can with any certainty go. We may allow, there- 
fore, that the Old Elm poet has not transcended, at 
least, the rights of historical license, in addressing the 
following lines to the Great Tree : — 

" When first from Mother Earth you sprung, 
Ere Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare sung, 
Or Puritans had come among 
The savages to loose each tongue 

In psalms and prayers, 
These forty acres, more or less, 
Now gayly clothed in Nature's dress, 
Where Yankees walk, and brag and guess, 
Were but a « howling wilderness ' 
Of wolves and bears." 

The tree belongs to a species of the elm family known 
as the "American, or White Elm," which is much ad- 
mired and cultivated abroad for its gracefulness of 
growth. In the books and papers describing it, as by 
the older inhabitants of Boston, it has always been 
called the "Great Tree;" but the infirmities of age, 
and the memorable historical associations connected 
with it, have by common consent exchanged the majes- 
tic for the venerable, and it is now almost universally 
called the "Old Elm." 

The dangers that have threatened it have been vari- 
ous and innumerable, from the trouble of men to the 

5 



50 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

tempests of heaven. The dissipated and reckless 
rabble, wild with intoxicants, so invariably found on the 
days of election and public parade, have never damaged 
it. The ruthlessness of the mob, excited by political 
quarrels and infuriated with rum, in its almost univer- 
sal devastation, either in veneration fcr or forgetfulness 
of the Great Tree, has always passed it by. While 
General Gage, during the siege of Boston, permitted 
the destruction of much valuable property for fuel for 
his soldiers, it will ever be spoken to his credit, that 
he protected the trees. 

But the Elm has been endangered most by the vio- 
lence of storm. Braving the blasts of the weather for 
centuries, and wearied at last with endurance, in the 
summer of A. D. 1832 it yielded to the crush of the 
winds, and four of its large limbs were so far detached 
from the tree that they rested partially upon the ground ; 
but being raised and bolted together, though the bolts 
of iron are still visible, the limbs, at nearly this half 
century away, seem to have grown back into the tree 
again. On the 29th of June, A. D. 1860, after 
a terrible storm of rain and wind, the rumor ran 
around the city that the Old Elm was down, and 
hundreds of people came to the Common to find that 
one of its large limbs was gone, - — a limb which meas- 
ured forty-two inches in circumference. "It is not 
often," says Dr. Shurtleff, " that an occurrence of such 
small importance as the destruction of a tree will cause 
so much sorrow and regret as did this dismemberment 
of the Great Tree." Pieces of branches were gathered 
up by the crowd, and even the leaves carried away as 
relics, to be kept for mementos of the olden time. 

Despite the mutilations of decay, and the ravages of 



AND THE OLD ELM. 51 

storm, the tree has continued to grow and increase in 
size, until it is larger now than ever before. In addi- 
tion to the measurement already given, George B. Em- 
erson, Esq., and Professor Asa Gray, the distinguished 
botanists, obtained the following, A. D. 1844: " At 
the ground, twenty-three feet six inches ; at three feet, 
seventeen feet eleven inches ; and at five feet, sixteen feet 
one inch. In accordance with the wish of Dr. Warren, 
A. D. 1855, the tree was very accurately measured by the 
City Engineer, who recorded the dimensions as follows : 
"Height, seventy-two and one-half feet; girth one 
foot above the ground, twenty-two and one-half feet ; 
girth four feet above the ground, seventeen feet ; aver- 
age diameter of greatest extent of branches, one hun- 
dred and one feet." The latest measurement, taken by 
Dr. Shurtleff a few months before the storm A. D. 
1860, gave twenty-four feet girth at the ground ; eigh- 
teen and one-fourth feet, at three feet ; and sixteen and 
one-half feet at five feet, showing an increase in girth, 
though, of only about five inches in sixteen years. 

The associations connected with the Old Elm, have 
put it to almost every purpose under the sun, from a 
gibbet of infamy, to a " Liberty Tree" of the Revolu- 
tion. Under the law banishing Quakers from the Col- 
onies, and punishing them with death if they returned, 
William Robinsen and Marmaduke Stevensen were 
convicted and hanged on the Common, and most proba- 
bly upon this tree. Mary Dyar, who was reprieved, 
through the intercessions of her son, after her foot was 
on the fatal ladder, only escaped to meet a similar fate 
the next year. And " the lifeless forms of Margaret 
Jones, of Annie Hibbins, and perhaps other victims of 



52 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

judicial murder, may have depended from these same 
limbs during the reign of the witchcraft horrors." 

The late Samuel G. Drake, Esq., in his " History of 
Boston," narrates an early incident connected with the 
history of this tree, which occurred July 27th, A. D. 
1676. He says : " Another of the Nipmuck Sachems, 
called ' Sagamore John,' influenced about one hundred 
and sixty Indians to surrender at Boston. One among 
them, Old Matoonas, he brought in by force, being 
'bound with cords.' He was immediately condemned 
to death ; for he was not only the father of him who 
was hung in Boston several years before, but he was 
charged with being the first to commit murder in Mas- 
sachusetts Colony in this war. His betrayer, ' Saga- 
more John,' was desirous that he and his men might be 
the executioners ; wherefore Matoonas was carried out 
into the Common , and being tied to a tree " (doubtless 
the Old Elm) , " they then shot him to death." 

Very near the Powder House, which also stood in close 
proximity to the tree, on the third of July, A.D. 1728, 
occurred the duel between Benjamin Woodbridge and 
Henry Phillips, young men of the highest respectability, 
who both loved and lost a young lady for whom they 
fought. Woodbridge was thrust through with a sword 
and left dead on the field, while Phillips was hurried on 
board the " Sheerness " man-of-war and out of the coun- 
try, by his brother and Peter Faneuil, a man who is 
widely known for a better matter. The affair originated 
the well known, but none too rigid law of New Eng- 
land, on duelling. 

During the struggle of the Colonies for their inde- 
pendence, the neighborhood of the Great Elm was one 
of the places of resort for the Sons of Liberty, who fre- 



AND THE OLD ELM. 55 

quently caused the tree to be illuminated with lanterns 
on evenings of rejoicing and festal occasions. It also 
served the purpose of exhibitions of popular feeling 
and indignation, for many has been the Tory who has 
been hung in effigy from its branches. Perhaps on this 
account it acquired the name of " Liberty Tree," which 
it bore A. D. 1874, the tree originally bearing the name 
having been taken down, as it is designated on a map 
of Boston engraved that year. 

It was not inappropriate, that after the varied history 
of nearly two centuries, this locality should be sancti- 
fied to more peaceful memories, and that the tree in its 
old age should obtain a more hallowed history than 
even that secured to it in the efforts for national liberty. 

The Rev. Jesse Lee gave to the tree a religious as- 
sociation in fitting contrast with the deeds of bigotry 
and persecution enacted in the name of religion, when 
the Great Elm served no higher purpose than a gallows 
for the innocent. Long enough had the " Lord poured 
out his fury upon the trees of the field, that they should 
burn and not be quenched," as the people so sacrileg- 
iously imagined it. We therefore date a new era, and a 
period of better things, from .the evening of Sunday, 
July 11th, A.D. 1790. 

Boston has given no better evidence of her venera- 
tion for the Old Elm, than in the care she has so con- 
tinuously bestowed upon it. The soil has frequently 
been raised at its roots, which for many years have been 
carefully guarded with a fence. The hollow in the 
trunk of the tree a long time ago was filled with fifteen 
barrels of clay, mixed with other substances, and then 
covered by a canvas fastened around it. To what ex- 



54 MEMORIAL OF JESSE LEE 

tent the interior has been repaired it is impossible to 
determine, but a portion of the cavity was obliterated 
by the formation of a new woody fiber, twenty years 
ago. . 

The Mayor of Boston, A.D. 1854, found a special 
delight in pruning, and otherwise caring for the tree. 
The old wooden defense he caused to be removed, and 
in its stead erected an octagonal iron fence which bears 
upon an oval tablet secured to the gate, the following 
inscription : — 

'THE OLD ELM. 

" This Tree has been standing here for an unknown 

period. It is believed to have existed before 

the settlement of boston, being full 

grown in 1722. Exhibited marks of 

old age in 1792, and was nearly 

destroyed by a storm in 1832. 

Protected by an iron 

enclosure in 1854. 

J. V. C. SMITH, Hfogxrr." 

In the Spring, A.D. 1860, an off-shoot was discover- 
ed started from one of the roots on the westerly side of 
the main tree. Great care has been shown by the City 
Forrester for this shoot ever since, which is now quite 
a tree in itself, being nearly or fully twenty feet in 
height, and measuring nearly twenty inches in girth at 
the ground. It may live and grow to inherit the hor- 
rors and honors of its Mother Elm, but never to 
witness similar scenes. 

As long as the city holds a pride for the Common, 
or remembers her history, the Great Tree, now the 



AND THE OLD ELM. 55 

Old Elm, will be venerated for its antiquity, and kept 
as a landmark of Boston. And 



" Of our swift passage through this scenery 
Of life and death, more durable than we, 
What landmark so congenial as a tree 
Eepeating its green legend every spring, 
And, with a yearly ring, 
Recording the fair seasons as they flee, 
Type of our brief but still-renewed mortality? " 



